That time I laughed at a guy for bagging his comics until I saw his collection from 1992

There's a dude at my local shop, Big Ben's Comics on 4th Street, who puts every single issue in a mylar bag with a board, even dollar bin stuff. I used to think he was wasting his time, but then he showed me his run of Uncanny X-Men from the early 90s where the covers looked brand new, no yellowing or spine ticks. My copies from that same era look like they went through a washing machine. I still don't bag everything, but I'm wondering if anyone else has had an old comic that suddenly shot up in value just because it was stored right?

3 comments

3 Comments

cameronn627d ago

And that's the thing with those early 90s books especially, the paper quality was already garbage so storage makes or breaks them. I've got a copy of X-Force #1 that I bagged and boarded the day I bought it, and it's still white and tight, while my buddy's copy that sat loose in a longbox looks like it was left on a dashboard. For the big keys like ASM 361 or that first Gambit issue, going from an 8.0 to a 9.4 can be the difference between a $50 book and a $200 book down the road, even if the market dips. But for something like a random issue of Sleepwalker or Darkhawk? Nobody's cracking open a slab for those, so bagging feels like polishing a turd. Still, once you get in the habit of bagging everything as soon as you get home it's just part of the routine, you know?

sean_torres7120d ago

Bagging and boarding everything is overkill for dollar bin books but you can't argue with the results he got on those X-Men issues. My buddy kept his Amazing Spider-Man 361 in a zip lock bag under his bed and the cover is still crisp while mine has a crease down the spine from being stacked sideways on a shelf for years. Proper storage can easily bump a book from 8.0 to 9.4 which is a real difference when you look at price guides. The guy at your shop might look extra but he's playing the long game.

mary_martin2220d ago

@sean_torres71 got me thinking - how do you tell the difference between a well-stored book that's genuinely worth more versus one where the condition doesn't really matter to the market? Like, are there certain comics where bagging is just wasted effort because nobody cares about a 9.4 vs an 8.0?